Written Answers Wednesday 16 September 2009

Scottish Executive

Benefits

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has contributed, or plans to contribute, to the debate on aspects of Her Majesty’s Government’s debate on Shaping the Future of Care Together with regard to possible changes to benefits received by claimants in Scotland.

Shona Robison: We have not been included in, or invited to contribute to discussions about the options for change to the benefit system which may flow from the UK Government’s green paper. Scottish Government officials attended a meeting at a very early stage of the work in November 2007 which was also attended by officials from several UK Departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions . At that meeting it was clear that the social care debate in England might include a reform of the GB benefit system. Unfortunately, despite efforts to do so, we have not however been consulted on possible options for change to funding of care.

  We are of course aware of the impact which the options for reform of the English social care system outlined in the green paper may have on Scotland through a concurrent reform to GB-wide disability benefits. Accordingly, we have written to the Secretary of State for Health highlighting our concerns that, in reforming disability benefits to meet objectives for reform of social care in England, our objectives and ambitions for reshaping social care delivery in Scotland may be restricted.

  We have therefore requested an early and detailed explanation of any proposed revision to Disability Benefits, and a commitment from the UK Government to give full consideration to the need to take into account the impact on policies and services which are the responsibility of the Scottish Government.

  A formal response to the UK green paper is currently being prepared.

Benefits

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has made an assessment of the impact on claimants in Scotland of the options for changes to benefits raised in Her Majesty’s Government’s debate on Shaping the Future of Care Together and, if so, what the outcome was.

Shona Robison: At this point in time we can only monitor the number of people in Scotland who receive disability related benefits. Her Majesty’s Government’s current debate on Shaping the Future of Care has not yet made any specific proposals about how these benefits might change.

  We have therefore requested an early and detailed explanation of any proposed revision to Disability Benefits, and a commitment from the UK Government to give full consideration to the need to take into account the impact of benefit policy changes in Scotland.

Cancer

Rhona Brankin (Midlothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to review the information given to women about the Scottish Breast Screening Programme.

Nicola Sturgeon: Information given to women about the Scottish Breast Screening Programme is produced by NHS Health Scotland and they are planning to review this information in 2010.

Cancer

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the NHS Lothians area in each of the last three years.

Nicola Sturgeon: Data on the number of people diagnosed with prostate cancer are available by NHS board and year (1986-2006) on the Information Services Division website:

  http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1488.html#Cancer%20of%20the%20prostate.

  The latest year for which cancer registration data are complete is 2006.

Communities

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Islamic Federation will be required to repay all or part of the grant awarded to it over a year ago for a festival that has not yet taken place.

Alex Neil: The Scottish Islamic Foundation has repaid £128,000 of the original £200,000 grant for IslamFest to the Scottish Government.

Communities

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19741 by Fergus Ewing on 23 January 2009, whether there has been an evaluation of the Scottish Islamic Foundation finance event scheduled for June 2009 and part-funded by the Scottish Government.

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how the Scottish Islamic Foundation’s financial event, Etisal, will be evaluated.

Fergus Ewing: All projects funded by the Scottish Government require monitoring and evaluation to take place as part of the standard funding conditions.

Communities

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which organisations have agreed to fund the Scottish Islamic Foundation’s financial event, Etisal, in November 2009.

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has each sponsoring organisation agreed to contribute to the Scottish Islamic Foundation’s financial event, Etisal.

Alex Neil: Any additional funding for the event is a matter for the Scottish Islamic Foundation.

Communities

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what input, other than financial, the Scottish Government will have to the Scottish Islamic Foundation’s financial event, Etisal

Alex Neil: The Scottish Government has no other input in relation to this event.

Communities

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Libya, as a member state of the Organisation of Islamic Conference countries, has been invited to support or participate in Etisal, the investment and trade conference being organised by the Scottish Islamic Foundation.

Alex Neil: This is a matter for the Scottish Islamic Foundation. We have been advised that there has not been any communication with Libya.

Communities

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of any foreign trips undertaken by Osama Saeed on behalf of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Islamic Foundation or any other relevant body funded by the Scottish Government.

Alex Neil: Osama Saeed, Chief Executive of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, has not undertaken any foreign trips on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the outcome of a recent application of the Rush system of analysis to the likely need for drug and alcohol treatment facilities in Scotland, for what reason many of the beds available for such treatment are unoccupied.

Shona Robison: The provision of services is for each local area to consider, taking account of local needs, circumstances and resources. It is for individual NHS boards, local authorities and alcohol and drug partnerships (ADPs) to ensure that appropriate health care services are provided to meet the needs of their resident populations.

  Decisions on the most appropriate treatment for individual patients are taken by clinicians who determine the most appropriate form of treatment, taking account of the needs and circumstances of each patient. Their aim is to ensure that the treatment package will provide the most effective support for the individual concerned.

Environment

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that public money should not be used to promote the consumption of products that have a negative impact on climate change.

Stewart Stevenson: The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 demonstrates the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling climate change. Policy options and public spending decisions are already contributing to reducing emissions. The Scottish Government has made a commitment to carbon assessment of the impact of its spending from 2010-11 and will report annually on emissions attributable to Scottish consumption of goods and services from 2010.

Environment

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to establish more sustainable relations between rural and urban economies, addressing issues such as demographic change and migration, energy saving and efficiency, low-carbon emission and short distance food chains and biological and cultural diversity.

Roseanna Cunningham: As set out in the Government Economic Strategy we are focussed on giving greater priority to achieving more balanced growth across Scotland, in order to reduce regional disparities. As part of this we are ensuring a more strategic approach to the growth of Scotland’s cities, towns and rural areas across transport, planning, housing and economic development.

  Our actions include: working to help address demographic challenges; taking forward the Climate Change agenda; introducing the Scotland Rural Development Programme; implementing the national developments and spatial strategy set out in the second National Planning Framework and delivering planning reform; implementing Scotland’s biodiversity strategy; working to improve access and participation in cultural activities, and we will shortly be publishing a consultation on the Energy Efficiency Action Plan. We are also focusing government and the wider public sector around our national outcomes, including those on the environmental impacts of consumption and production; the built and natural environment, and realising our full economic potential.

Epilepsy

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people diagnosed with epilepsy have died in police custody in the last 10 years.

The Executive have supplied the following revised answer:

Kenny MacAskill: With the exception of Strathclyde, Scottish Police Forces report no deaths in police custody in the last 10 years where the cause of death was established as epilepsy. Due to records management limitations, Strathclyde effectively reported no similar deaths in the last seven years.

Epilepsy

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what training procurators fiscal receive regarding the role that epilepsy can play in apparent offences, particularly where post-ictal states or complex partial seizures may contribute to such offences.

Frank Mulholland: Procurators fiscal are trained to consider the possibility of medical conditions playing a role in the commission of offences. Training is also provided to procurators fiscal on the legal criteria for all special defences such as insanity, insanity at the time of the crime, automatism, diminished responsibility and the leading of expert evidence. Significance of medical conditions may be examined in the context of a trial or examination of the facts during which expert evidence is presented to establish whether a defence can be established, for example, on the basis that an accused was suffering a seizure at the time or was in a post-ictal state.

European Funding

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the withdrawal of EU funding for the growing of raw tobacco.

Richard Lochhead: The government supports the decision taken by the EU in 2004 to remove all subsidies linked to the cultivation of tobacco from 2010.

Fisheries

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of European Commission proposals to abolish quotas for certain key fish stocks and to replace them with an annual allowance of days at sea.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to carry out an assessment of the implications for the Scottish fishing fleet of any proposals to replace quotas for certain key fish stocks with an annual allowance of days at sea.

Richard Lochhead: The proposal to replace quotas for certain fish stocks and replace them with an annual allowance of days at sea was first raised in the European Commission’s green paper on Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. Commissioner Borg again raised the proposal in a recent address to the European Parliament Fisheries Committee.

  The proposal would mean a radical shift in the way that fisheries are managed. An effort-only system might help to reduce discarding of fish, but would also require supporting technical conservation measures.

  In formulating its response to the European Commission’s green paper on CFP reform the Scottish Government will consider the relative merits of different forms of fisheries management, including their likely impact on the operations of the fishing fleet and on the conservation of fish stocks.

Fisheries

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have been held with the (a) UK Government and (b) European Commission about any proposals to abolish quotas for certain key fish stocks and to replace them with an annual allowance of days at sea.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have been held with the Scottish fishing industry regarding any European Commission proposals to abolish quotas for certain key fish stocks and to replace them with an annual allowance of days at sea.

Richard Lochhead: The proposal for an effort only system is part of a wide range of changes to fisheries policies within the European Commission’s Green Paper on Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. We are discussing these matters with stakeholders in a series of bilateral meetings and wider stakeholder workshops. These discussions will help us develop a Scottish Government response to the European Commission’s consultation on CFP reform, including the proposal for an effort-only system. The consultation closes at the end of 2009.

  We are working closely with the UK Government to develop a UK position. Officials have also met counterparts from the Commission and other member states to explore Green Paper proposals for the future management of EU fisheries.

Fisheries

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has requested a meeting with the EU fisheries commissioner to discuss his reported proposals to abolish quotas for certain key fish stocks and to replace them with an annual allowance of days at sea.

Richard Lochhead: No. A meeting for this specific purpose would be premature whilst the Scottish Government is consulting stakeholders on the Commission’s green paper.

General Medical Services

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of providing general medical services in (a) 2002-03, (b) 2003-04, (c) 2004-05 and (d) 2005-06, broken down by contract type.

Nicola Sturgeon: The cost of providing general medical services in Scotland in (a) 2002-03, (b) 2003-04, (c) 2004-05 and (d) 2005-06, broken down by contract type is shown in the following table.

  

 
 
£000


2002-03
Former GMS Contract
 


 
GMS Unified
143,260


 
GMS - Non-Discretionary
305,219


 
 
448,479


2003-04
Former GMS Contract
 


 
GMS Unified
160,159


 
GMS - Non-Discretionary
327,343


 
 
487,502


2004-05
New GMS Contract
 


 
GMS - Section 17J
542,855


 
Section 17C
68,233


 
Direct Provision
17,355


 
Total
628,443


2005-06
New GMS Contract
 


 
GMS - Section 17J
594,969


 
Section 17C
73,700


 
Direct Provision
27,335


 
Total
696,004

Health

Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it recognises the value to local communities of former cottage hospitals.

Nicola Sturgeon: Community hospitals play an important role in patient care in Scotland. We are working closely with health boards and local authorities, looking at the medical services community hospitals currently offer in order to ensure a comprehensive service is provided for all patients.

Health

Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to support, retain, improve and expand the facilities at former cottage hospitals.

Nicola Sturgeon: The retention, expansion and improvement of facilities at Community Hospitals are ultimately matters for health boards and local authorities.

  However, we will continue to fully support Community Hospitals under the "Shifting the Balance of Care" (SBC) initiative and will focus on the targets set in the SBC Improvement Framework.

Health

Tom McCabe (Hamilton South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been an impact on services for people with mental health problems as a result of the loss of ring-fencing and how it would address the situation if evidence emerged that services had deteriorated.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is not formally monitoring the impact on any specific service or set of services provided by local authorities. The concordat and the introduction of SOAs – together with the removal of ring-fenced funding - were designed to substantially enhance local decision-making on the design, delivery and funding of all services provided by local authorities within Community Planning Partnerships.

  In reaching agreement with CPPs on the SOA, The Scottish Government requires evidence that local outcomes reflect an area’s strategic priorities and that they are capable of being linked to one or more of the National Outcomes.

  We also offer support and advice to enable local authorities and other partners to consider the strategic priorities across the range of community care areas to inform use of resources and service redesign, in order to improve outcomes for people who use services, and their carers.

  We have also commissioned research on how the third sector is responding to the new opportunities and challenges arising from their new relationship with the public sector; this research was commissioned with the engagement of the third sector and public sector partners.

Justice

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many interviews on the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing gave between the announcement of the release and 3 September 2009.

Nicola Sturgeon: I undertook 13 interviews on television and radio during this period in my capacity as Deputy First Minister.

Justice

Joe FitzPatrick (Dundee West) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many litres of alcohol were seized by police officers from under-18s in 2008-09, broken down by (a) alcohol type and (b) police force.

Kenny MacAskill: This information is not collected routinely from police forces.

  However as part of the Violence Reduction Unit’s on-going anti-violence campaign, police in Scotland have, over the past year (April 2008 to March 2009), seized over 2,000 litres of alcohol from underage and illegal street drinkers.

Justice

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what options are available for it to make available the evidence compiled by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission regarding Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s recently dropped second appeal and have that and other relevant evidence judicially tested.

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to secure the release of evidence compiled by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission regarding Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s recently dropped second appeal.

Kenny MacAskill: I am keen to have as much information about this case in the public domain as possible. I met the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission last week and continue to have productive discussions with them about the possibility of them disclosing information which they hold. Options include an Order under section 194K(1)(f) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 which would remove one of the limitations on the release of such information. All other legal obligations and limitations in respect of disclosure would need to be fully considered.

Justice

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to hold an inquiry into the untested findings of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission report regarding Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s recently dropped second appeal.

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to hold an inquiry into the untested findings of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission report regarding Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s recently dropped second appeal.

Kenny MacAskill: The proper place for references by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to be dealt with is the Appeal Court. The Scottish Ministers have some powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 to establish an inquiry, but the powers of such an inquiry would be limited. As I said on 20 August, the questions to be asked and answered are beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and the restricted remit of the Scottish Government. If a further inquiry were felt to be appropriate then it should be initiated by those with the required power and authority. The Scottish Government would be happy to fully co-operate in such an inquiry.

Justice

Bill Aitken (Glasgow) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-26897 by Kenny MacAskill on 8 September 2009 in relation to the foreign national released on compassionate grounds, whether it will provide the (a) length of sentence served, (b) country to which the person was returned, (c) crime for which the person was convicted, (d) date of release and (v) name of the person.

Kenny MacAskill: The person, Francis Lloyd, was serving a sentence of six years’ imprisonment for an offence contravening the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. He was released in April 2005 to an address in England.

Schools

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19853 by Maureen Watt on 29 January 2009, what progress it is making on integrating the Schools to go Greener initiative into the Curriculum for Excellence.

Keith Brown: Schools Renewables Development Officers (SRDOs) are continuing to work with Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) to ensure that the educational implications and benefits of the package of measures announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 5 January are effectively integrated into Curriculum for Excellence. For example, the SRDOs are working with individual authorities and schools on twinning exercises between schools in order to expand pupils’ knowledge outwith their own school. Where possible, this will be supported and documented on the LTS website.

  The Curriculum for Excellence experience and outcomes were launched in April and will ensure that sustainable development education is integrated into all areas of the curriculum. This will support our aims of developing young people as responsible global citizens with knowledge and understanding of the world and Scotland’s place in it and who are better able to evaluate complex environmental, scientific and technological issues.

Schools

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19853 by Maureen Watt on 29 January 2009, what progress it is making towards its commitment to having renewable generation in every school.

Keith Brown: School Renewables Development Officers have helped a number of local authorities process applications for funding from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme, which has recently been extended to 2011,  for renewable generation in schools. Authorities can also apply for funding from the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, which can provide funding towards the eligible capital costs of installing renewable energy generation plant both in schools and in other buildings.

Schools

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-19853 by Maureen Watt on 29 January 2009, how many schools had renewable energy generation in (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2008-09.

Keith Brown: The information requested is not held centrally.

Single Outcome Agreements

Tom McCabe (Hamilton South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it is monitoring the effects of single outcome agreements on services for people with mental health problems.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is not formally monitoring the effects of the introduction of single outcome agreements (SOAs) on specific services provided by local authorities as part of local partnerships.

  We are confident that the effects of the concordat and SOAs will have a positive impact on mental health services, and work being undertaken on social care mental health benchmarking will give a clearer benchmark and more comparative information.

  The concordat and SOAs deliberately enhanced and greatly liberated local decision-making reflecting local knowledge of needs, priorities and demographics. SOAs set out strategic priorities for local areas - including tackling health inequalities; it is for each Community Planning Partnership (CPPs) to derive its local outcomes which should be drawn from an integrated profile of the social, economic and environmental conditions of the area concerned. In reaching agreement with CPPs on the SOA, we look for evidence that local outcomes reflect an area’s strategic priorities and that they are capable of being linked to one or more of the National Outcomes.

  We also offer support and advice to enable local authorities and other partners to consider the strategic priorities across the range of community care areas to inform use of resources and service redesign, in order to improve outcomes for people who use services, and their carers.

  We have also commissioned research on how the third sector is responding to the new opportunities and challenges arising from their new relationship with the public sector; this research was commissioned with the engagement of the third sector and public sector partners.

Teachers

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many probationary teachers in the (a) primary and (b) secondary sector applied for the preference waiver payment scheme in 2008-09, broken down by local authority.

Keith Brown: There were 125 applicants for the 2008-09 preference waiver payment scheme in the primary sector and 182 in the secondary sector.

  Information is not held centrally about the local authority area in which each applicant lives. By definition, probationer teachers electing to take the preference waiver option do not express a preference about the authorities to which they would be assigned. Information about the authorities to which those electing to take the preference waiver option were assigned is provided in the response to the question S3W-26868 on 16 September 2009.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Teachers

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many probationary teachers in the (a) primary and (b) secondary sector placed with local authorities received financial assistance under the preference waiver payment scheme in 2008-09, broken down by local authority.

Keith Brown: There were a total of 239 preference waiver probationers working with local authorities for the 2008-09 Teacher Induction Scheme (105 primary and 134 secondary).

  The table shows the number of probationers, by authority and sector, receiving preference waiver payments in 2008-09.

  

Authority
Primary
Secondary
Total


Aberdeen City
0
1
1


Aberdeenshire
0
9
9


Angus
0
8
8


Argyll and Bute
8
11
19


Clackmannanshire
4
0
4


Dumfries and Galloway
21
17
38


Dundee
3
4
7


East Ayrshire
0
2
2


East Dunbartonshire
0
0
0


East Lothian
0
1
1


East Renfrewshire
0
0
0


Edinburgh
0
0
0


Eilean Siar
1
7
8


Falkirk
0
0
0


Fife
27
15
42


Glasgow
0
0
0


Highland
20
25
45


Inverclyde
0
0
0


Midlothian 
0
0
0


Moray
5
10
15


North Ayrshire
0
2
2


North Lanarkshire
0
3
3


Orkney Isles
2
5
7


Perth and Kinross
3
6
9


Renfrewshire
0
0
0


Scottish Borders
10
2
12


Shetland Isles
1
0
1


South Ayrshire
0
6
6


South Lanarkshire
0
0
0


Stirling
0
0
0


West Dunbartonshire
0
0
0


West Lothian
0
0
0


Totals
105
134
239

Teachers

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many recipients of financial assistance under the preference waiver payment scheme were placed in the local authority area from which they made their application for assistance.

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many recipients of financial assistance under the preference waiver payment scheme were placed in a local authority area adjoining the area from which they made their applications for assistance.

Keith Brown: This information is not held centrally.

  The personal circumstances of probationer teachers, including their home addresses, are not taken into account during the allocation process.